Due to weather and technical issues at the race airport, the first rounds of flying all week in the Balaton track occurred just hours before the live Qualifying session, giving each pilot just two runs to finalize their race line for the weekend. The Balaton race track has three vertical turn maneuvers, providing many flight line variations – vertical turns, oblique turns, and flat turns all to be considered.

“This track is really tricky,” says tactician Paulo Iscold. “There is not really an optimum line for the vertical turns; if there is, no one has it completely figured it out yet. That is why we’ve seen pilots with fast runs flying completely different lines.”

Martin Sonka took the pole and also set the track record with a time of 57.820, becoming the only pilot to fly sub-58. Juan Velarde of Spain and Mika Brageot of France rounded out the top three, each adding points to their world championship standing. Kirby’s best run of 1:00.142 resulted in 12th position and puts him head-to-head with Mika Brageot in tomorrow’s Round of 14.